Kings Cross St Pancras 'northern ticket hall' to open 29 November?

Kings Cross St Pancras underground station suffers severe overcrowding almost every work day.  The staff have to close the gates as a primitive form of crowd control to prevent a dangerous situation underground.  Kings Cross St Pancras underground will suffer from massively increased throughput when the Kings Cross railways lands devleopment comes on stream and tens of thousands of communters come to kings cross every day to work there as well as transit.  It is a worry that the underground station might never cope.

For some years TfL and others have been labouring on Britain's most expensive hole - the £300m Northern Ticket Hall under Pancras Road.  This will bring people who get off the Thameslink and Midland Mainline directly into the tube station underground.  This Northern Ticket Hall should alleviate problems overground in St Pancras removing a lot of the foot traffic in the main concourse and perhaps in capacity of the whole tube station - although the problem might just transfer to holding people in the undergrund tunnels like a pack of commuting moles (BTW what is the collective noun for moles).  It seems the northern ticket hole is nearing completion according to First Capital Connect (see below).  This site will keep an eye on what happens overground - a brand new multi hundred million pound tube station should not be overcrowded.

FCC news release follows, thanks to London Reconnections for tipping me off:

'London Underground will open a new ticket hall at King’s Cross St Pancras station on 29 November 2009.

This ticket hall will provide new access between FCC services at King’s Cross and St Pancras International and the Northern, Piccadilly and Victoria lines at the Underground station.

For FCC passengers on both Thameslink and Great Northern route services, this will mean shorter and less congested routes to and from these Underground platforms, without lengthy walks through St Pancras International or King’s Cross stations.

Final works will be completed in 2010 and will provide step-free access to all London Underground lines served at the station.

Between FCC St Pancras International Thameslink route platforms and:

Piccadilly line: 5 mins 40 secs (currently 8 mins)

Victoria line : 7 mins (currently 8 mins)

Northern line: 5 mins 50 secs (currently 9 mins 30 secs)

Circle, Metropolitan & Hammersmith and City lines: 4 mins (route doesn’t change)

In addition, new entrances/exits at the other end of the Piccadilly, Northern and Victoria line platforms will make it easier and quicker (less congested) for passengers to access and leave these platforms.

Between FCC King’s Cross platforms 9, 10 & 11 and:

Piccadilly line: 4 mins 30 secs (currently 6 mins – or up to 11 mins if station entrance temporarily closed in the morning rush hour)

Victoria line: 6 mins (no change – but currently can be up to 11 mins if station entrance temporarily closed in the morning rush hour)

Northern line: 4 mins 40 secs (currently 7 mins – or up to 12 mins if station entrance temporarily closed in the morning rush hour)

Circle, Metropolitan & Hammersmith and City lines: 6 mins 30 secs (currently 7 mins 30 secs – or up to 12 mins 30 secs if station entrance temporarily closed in the morning rush hour)

In addition, new entrances/exits at the other end of the Piccadilly, Northern and Victoria line platforms will make it easier and quicker (less congested) for passengers to access and leave these platforms.

Comments

[Geoff]

The collective noun for moles is surely 'a coat' of moles...

[Diana Shelley]

We've waited 20 years for the Northern Ticket Hall, which was a key safety recommendation in the Fennell Report on the King's Cross Fire in 1987... And it had been kicked into the long grass (and molehills) for years till it was resurrected as part of the Olympics bid. So finally, at last, we're getting what was considered an essential safety provision (after 31 people lost their lives).

[Joe FD]

Was slightly surreal going through the new ticket hall this morning.

Particularly when the usually direct, if congested, route from the straight down the King's cross forecourt, down the escalator to the Victoria line was replaced by a bizarre route, diverted north through the busy train station, then underground through a maze of tunnels to end up at the Pentonville Road exit end of the platform.

Anyone else find this quite odd?

Why close the forecourt entrance - surely better to have a choice of entrances to reduce congestion?

[Andrew]

It did feel quite bizarre, however when the green shed is gone the new entrance may be a bit more convenient as you won't have to navigate the masses to get to it.

I was a bit disappointed with the architecture myself. This is not a complaint, just an observation, it is nicer than the old station prior to refurb.